Friday, February 27, 2004

It's stoppedIt snowed steadily for eight hours. There isn't a huge pile because it never really went below zero all day. Olivier and Dom got soaked making a snowman, Eugene McFloyd, whose nose has dropped off. The dryer is full of smelly wet hats and gloves.

There were no buses this afternoon so I couldn't get in to see Lionel about next week, he gave me as many details as he could over the phone and promised to let me know if any one else booked in this afternoon. How much do you want to bet I turn up on Monday to find I've got an extra pupil and nothing prepared for their level.

Rob doesn't know how he'll get home, hopefully they'll put some buses on this evening.

It's snowing!we only get snow around once every four years here so you'll have to forgive us dancing around and getting excited. It's been snowing for two hours and everything is white. Olivier and I managed to drive back from the supermarket before it started sticking to the road. Rob just phoned to ask me if I thought it was blowing into the roof; I don't think so. There are no legal requirements in our region to build snow proof houses.

Had a lovely walk to the post office; cold, sunny and blue skies. As I was walking I thought up a really good post for here. Forgot about it straight away. Not much happening on the home front: Olivier is slowly taking over the American football league. Not bad considering he didn't have a clue a few days ago and has learnt the game as he goes along. Dom has been popping out to see friends. she gave her first maths lessons this week. Fortunately her pupil was as keen on maths as she is and they both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

I thought that.....Amish people were supposed to lead simple lives, none of the modern machinery and technology. The web site is very good and they even have.....Thanks to Isaac Stolzfut for sending me on this trail

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

Not quite how I soundOlivier asked me to phone up a games shop this morning as he wants to trade in some Xbox and computer games. I was expecting to talk to a woman but I spoke to a very charming young man who was obviously bowled over by my English accent. It was very flattering! I told Olivier about it afterwards and remarked that he'll probably be disappointed when he sees me this afternoon. Olivier said "Yes" Hmmmmph!

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Most people are convinced that you don't make any sense, but compared
to what else you could say, what you're saying now makes tons of sense. What people do
understand about you is your vulgarity, which has convinced people that you are at once
brilliant and repugnant. Meanwhile you are content to wander around aimlessly, taking in
the sights and sounds of the city. What you see is vast, almost limitless, and brings you
additional fame. When no one is looking, you dream of being a Greek folk hero.

BlogsharesStill can't see my portfolio but I use the rss information to get around the blogs. I used to type all the addresses, yes really! I have heard of copy and paste, just that I'm a bit slow on the uptake sometimes....

My cousin PaulI've talked about him before, I had an e-mail from him last week, this is what he had to say;

"I think the Brel album is out in France this week, it's called 'Next' and
is a compilation of English versions of his songs, it's a dream come
true, Brel has been my hero ever since I first heard him over 20 years
ago.
It comes out in UK in March the same time as my album so everything is
incredibly frantic."

He's been working hard for a long, long time. Just thought I'd share some good news with you all.

Horse meat?I've also made a note to talk about horse meat. I was a vegetarian for a year, to see what it was like. At that time if you went out to eat you'd finish up with cheese salad. Omelet? Well, you have to know what it was cooked in. Any way I went back to eating meat. If you eat a cow or a pig or a lamb or a chicken, why not other animals?

Then we came to France. When we first arrived there was always horse meat in the meat section at the supermarket. L'Houmeau was visited by a travelling horse butcher on Saturday mornings and some nieghbourhoods had horse butchers of their own. We ate horse steaks at a friends. Can't say I noticed a difference in the taste. I never bought it myself. Then a few years ago there was a big a change; lots of people became ill after eating the meat from one infected horse, normally it wouldn't have posed a problem, but lots of people here prefer their meat underdone. Someone worked out you could make 1000 portions from one horse, this includes 'black pudding' from the blood, sausages and other bits and pieces. As people preferred to eat their meat underdone they stopped eating horses.

The TV program on pets also ran a feature around that time about retired racehorses. In the past they went straight to the butchers. Suprise, surprise, people actually started buying them to ride for pleasure. Horse lovers could get a high class horse reasonable cheaply.

Milk for thoughtI've just read something that Bill has written over at Nothing but love, back from the edge. It's entitled "Kristina". He's talking about the dangers of powdered milk. Christian was born in 1987, which was the year that it all started. I tried really hard to breast feed my children but there was just no milk. I cried and my babies cried too (Poor Rob). When Dominique was a baby I read an article "Breast feeding - As easy as falling off a log", it broke my heart. I thought I was managing with Olivier but when he was weighed at three months he was very under weight. I was only giving him half of what he needed to grow properly. Unfortunately some of us need to use powdered milk/formula.

Strange, these AmericansOlivier was busy telling me about an article he'd read about 'Backyard Wrestling'. It said that every weekend American men meet up in their gardens in order to hit each other with baseball bats, break vases over each other's heads and generally beat each other up. I said that I'm sure that's not true, perhaps some morons might do it but all the American male bloggers that I know seem pretty peaceful, certainly not the types to go out and hit their friends.

Dominique walked out of the room at that moment "It must be Bush" she mumbled.

Friday, February 20, 2004

Good girlI've been busy preparing work sheets for my lessons during the holidays. The first week of March I'll be coaching all of those poor students who are hopeless at English. I'm rather proud of my work and I've had one or two fresh ideas. I suppose most of it will end up in bins scattered around La Rochelle. At least I've enjoyed myself

A little bit worryingA few days ago Olivier came home to tell me that Jeremy, a boy from our village and in the same school as Olivier, was in hospital, in isolation. One of the boys in Olivier’s class had to go to be vaccinated because he sits by Jeremy in one of the group lessons. Anyway, we talked about the possibility of meningitis and forgot about it more or less.

Yesterday Olivier woke up with a temperature and his breathing was very noisy so I kept him home and called the doctor. He just has a touch of bronchitis and he’s to stay at home today too.

When Rob picked me up from work last night he told me that someone had brought a letter round from the college. The letter was to explain that there was a case of meningitis C and that there was no need to close the school or vaccinate everyone.

This morning I telephoned the school for a second time(which they don’t usually ask you to do after the first notification) and was asked questions about what was wrong with Olivier and had he seen a Doctor. Needless to say I am keeping a close eye on Olivier who seems to be full of beans at the moment!!

Jeremy is a really cute boy, so polite and from a lovely family, I’m sure he’ll be okay.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

During my lesson last night we came across Chicken Kiev. None of us knew what it was, so as both Mr. and Mrs. enjoy cooking I've printed out the recipe so we can work on it next week. Pity there isn't a cooker in the class room.

How sweetWe've been having problems with the sound on the computer this morning, but it's sorted out now. While I was deciding what to play to test it, I discovered that Christian had left me a video of Jimmy Hendrix singing 'hear my train is comin', on my desk when he was here at Christmas. Thanks Christian

Dear Mr. CyclistYou cut a very dashing figure first thing this morning in your professional cyclist gear, is it lycra? Your helmet was the latest aerodynamic style and you were wearing those funny shoes with no heels like on the Tour de France. I can’t comment on the bike because I don’t really know much about the latest styles, but I sure it would have cost a lot of money. Pity you couldn’t afford lights, it was quite dark and misty when I nearly didn’t see you. Oh yes, the community of La Rochelle have recently spent several million euros, just so you could have your own cycle path!!

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

Nothing to report, or all's quiet on the western frontI heard Moya Brennan on Woman's hour this morning. If you like Irish Harp music and Moya's voice Go on to 7.07 on the recording to hear her sing, it's really beautiful

I did tryI found out Jupiter's latin name, Phodopus sungorus campbelli, so I tried to find some photo's, the only ones were of some newfangled charcoal grey hamsters. She's white!! (She's got hairy feet too)

Thoughts on the BlogrollFor a while I’ve been thinking about this. On the left of this is my blogroll with my favorite blogs at the moment. When I have my blog reading time I use this list to visit. Do other people ever use it? I imagine once per blog; once you’ve seen a blog you like, you bookmark it anyway, you’re not going to say ”I’ll just pop over to Anji’s to see how so and so is getting along". In fact most of my new finds nowadays come from the comments of certain blogs and I know that a few of you have found me that way too.

Saturday, February 14, 2004

Happy Valentine’s dayTomorrow is the twentieth anniversary of our first date. Rob did ask me out on Valentine’s day but it was a Tuesday and Tuesday was ‘ladies night’ for me and a couple of my friends; cinema followed by a Chinese/Indian meal.

My sad little valentines day story goes back about eight years before that when I was working in the bank. I was on post duty and as we were late, I had to take the post round to the sorting office. The supervisor asked me if I’d had a card and I said no. So he showed me a sad pile of cards in the corner, all the cards which couldn’t be delivered. He told me I could pick one if I wanted to, wasn’t he sweet? So, spare a thought for all the undelivered Valentine’s cards in all the post offices today.

Waiting room only
As I’ve been using the buses this week I’ve taken a ‘waiting room book’ with me: “The
Grass Harp, A Tree of Night and other stories” by Truman Capote. I really enjoyed his stories.
A bit weird though. The copy I’m reading was published in 1951. Did you know that, for a
while in the middle of the last century the formula used for making paper was wrong so a lot
of paperback books published then are crumbling away? As I was reading, the book was
leaving little flakes of browning paper everywhere.

Tuesday morningWas quite interesting I had to supervise just one student. She was German and called Dominique (What a wonderful name!). The reason why she was on her own was because she cannot use a pen for a long time and does her exams onto a computer. She explained that she was ill when she was a child and has very weak muscles. She signed the entrance paper but her signature was difficult to read. A very nice girl. She’s studying international business and is in France for a year. Her parents must be so proud of her.

No Computer….. again!I got home for an hour on Monday afternoon only to be told by Rob that I must put all my documents onto disc as he was taking the computer back to the dealers again. On Wednesday we went to collect the computer only to be told they hadn’t worked on it because they weren’t given a password. Can you believe it? We do have a telephone….and an answer phone. He finally collected the computer yesterday afternoon. They hadn’t done anything as they had the computer on and there were no problems. You have to be using it to make it go off. They insist that it’s our free A.O.L. modem anyway. Fingers crossed that I don’t disappear as I write this. I did miss you all and am now trying to catch up with the weeks events

Grilled mouseLast night when we were debating whether or not to put a film on, the electricity suddenly went off. We went out side to see if it was us or everyone and the street lights were on. Rob went into the garage to investigate. The electricity wouldn’t go back on so he opened the fuse box and there was a little dead mouse.

In the meantime I was in the house with Dom trying to find candles and matches in the dark. We managed to light a few and Rob came in to borrow my rubber gloves and find a stick to dislodge the mouse with. He wanted me to go with him (Just in case the mouse was still alive). I got ready to follow and realized that my cardigan had caught fire!! I shouted out to him that I was on fire but he just told me to hurry up and stop messing about. I managed to batter out the flames, which just scorched my clothes, by the way.

It was me who dislodged the mouse. “You smell of smoke” Olivier said. “Yes” I replied. “I told you I was on fire” “Why did you do that?” Rob asked.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

I can't believe itI've just been reading about a girl who was twelve years old. She got friendly with an 18 year old boy over the internet, met up with him and decided to 'try out' sex. She got pregnant, of course and had an abortion. She now suffers from pelvic inflammatory infections. Don't parents talk to their children anymore?

Friday, February 06, 2004

He, heOn Thursday evening I was at City Center doing my lesson as usual. I saw my boss Lionel go down stairs from his flat at the top, he went into the office and phoned Rob and asked to talk to me. He must have felt a real twit

What about this then?As I was having rather a lot of problems I thought it might be better to restart with a new template. I thought new comments might be a good idea too. I've now got a preview button so that whenever I change something in the future I can see what will happen before I get mangled up.

The Common Cold UnitThis morning I turned my radio on to BBC radio 4 to hear a program about the Common cold Unit. The Common Cold unit was opened in 1945 in order to find a cold cure. I spent 10 days there in May 1984. At that time they were researching a medicine to ease the symptoms of flu. I was given flu and placebo tablets. Fortunately I was given real medicine for the cough that I developed. During the days we could do as we pleased so my flat mates and I went for long walks in the beautiful country side which surrounds Salisbury. Some of the paths follow the old Roman Roads. It was a great place to stay, believe it or not. Why did I chose to go there? I’m against experiments on animals and I though it was a good way to make a positive contribution to medical research. The program bought back some good memories.

CementCan't think of a better title for the moment. The houses being built at the front and side of the house are coming along nicely, thank you. Yesterday we had three huge cement lorries/trucks parked in our little road. Little did they know they were parked outside the house of the son of the man who came up with the idea of their enormous churning bodies.....

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

Bye bye starsI've taken the mouse trail thingy off because I have a suspicion it was making the site slower to load. I noticed some of my visitors were coming twice in quick succession, was it because the page was disappearing? It's been happening to me a lot recently.

I'm sorry.....Yesterday I forwarded an e-mail about the dangers of a drug called PHENYLPROPANOLAMINE To some of you especially those with children. I fell into the trap as Jody rightly informed me:

Anji, if you go to this page they say the info in the email is outdated
and many companies have already reformulated their medicines. The
findings date back over three years ago, so any medicine you bought back
then would be expired by now.

I should have worked it out myself when I read that in France the drug has been banned or on tightly controlled prescription for three years. The French government are very slow at sorting out medical problems as a rule. Sorry if I caused a panic out there in Blogland.

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

Spring is in the airThe last couple of days have been a little warmer and very sunny. We're getting about 15 minutes more daylight every week. It's certainly lighter, later in the evenings. I'm not feeling too spring like today. I've got a nasty cold, headache, and I ache all over and keep feeling hot and cold. I've also got three hours of lessons coming up. Now where did I put the paracetamol?

Monday, February 02, 2004

Sixth SenseI'm not sure if that's the correct title in English but it's the film where Bruce Willis is a child psychologist. It was brilliant and I didn't have a clue as to what the 'twist 'at the end would be; It was nice to see Mr. Willis in something other than an action film

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About Me

I'm interested in a lot of things. In recent years I've been selling old French postcards and love researching the history behind them. Sometimes I'm inspired to write a short story about my postcards.

Life begins at 40 but it really gets going in the 50s, then on with the sweet 60s!